Up to now, a proximal switch that irradiates light of a predetermined wavelength and detects the presence or absence of a proximal object on the basis of an intensity (light amount) of reflected light of the irradiated light exists (for example, see PTLs 1 and 2).
In this proximity switch, one is configured to detect whether or not the object coming close to the proximity switch exists on the basis of the intensity of the detected reflected light to be switched from ON to OFF or from OFF to ON in a case where the object comes close to the proximity switch, for example.
For this reason, for example, in a case where the proximity switch in related art is used as a switch used for turning on and turning off a lighting apparatus, the lighting apparatus turns on (ON) or turns off (OFF) each time the object comes close thereto.